


Always Ask For Me

by hollyhock13



Series: Whumptober 2019 [11]
Category: Batgirl (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics), Detective Comics (Comics), Robin (Comics)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Emotional Hurt, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort/Hurt, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Prompt: Stitches, They miss their Steph, Whumptober 2019, aw Tim if only you knew what was coming, but it is referenced so, david cain is a monster, okay??, or lack thereof, the violence is all before the story starts, these poor kiddos, we don’t like him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-12-14 23:11:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21023798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hollyhock13/pseuds/hollyhock13
Summary: Never ask a question you don’t want to know the answer to.





	Always Ask For Me

**Author's Note:**

> I am almost caught up (finally!)
> 
> Thanks for your patience, and I hope you enjoy this sad little piece. Thanks also to [@Ursapharoh15](%E2%80%9C) for helping me get through these prompts!
> 
> I’ve seen this scene (or, more accurately, the one this is based on) online, but I don’t know where it actually came from, or where it’s actually placed in the timeline. For the purposes of this fic, this is set after Stephanie has died, before she is resurrected, and while Tim and Cass are stationed in Blüdhaven with Dick.

Tim applies some antiseptic to the fresh bundle of stitches on Cassandra’s shoulder. 

“I don’t know how you can take these without even making a face,” he tells her. 

“Training,” she replies, and before he can stop himself he asks,

“What kind of training?”

“Mm. You know, the game for children? Two for flinching? My...Cain used to. With me. But with bullets.”

“Oh.” He should have known he didn’t want to know. 

She starts pulling her shirt back on. “It is okay...now. Doesn’t hurt so much.”

“It just makes me sad that he would hurt you like that. You didn’t deserve that.”

She smiles sadly at him. “No, I didn’t. But it is over now.”

“Yeah. Now you’ve got us, Cass. And we’ve got you.”

“Yes. Family.” She smiles at him before it turns sad again.

Tim knows what she’s thinking as surely as she knows he does. Stephanie. She was theirs too, but she’s gone. The two of them sit in silence for a while.

“Do you...do you want to stay here tonight?” Tim asks her. “I can make popcorn and we could watch a movie. Or, I don’t know. Play video games?”

Cass cocks her head as she thinks, and Tim has a surge of hope that she’ll say yes. She shakes her head, and his heart plummets. “Not tonight. Another time.”

He nods, sure she can see how hurt he is anyway. 

She nods too, and slips through the window into the cold night.


End file.
